There's No Such Thing
by kuramaislove
Summary: There's this legend in his university, that your soul mate is connected to you through skin and ink but in his twenty years of existing on earth, never did he thought it possible to have someone like a "soul mate". He has heard enough about it from his childhood friend—to be honest, searching will just be too troublesome. But what if she pops up uninvited?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Yo! 'Sup! *does a Kakashi wave* Hope you enjoy!

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own naruto nor do I make any profit out of this fic.

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 **CHAPTER 1**

First day of classes in the first semester and the first thing he sees is a note on his hand: _**COMM ARTS 7 am JD BUILDING**_ **.** He doesn't remember writing it down, but he was too sleepy last night he didn't really remember clearly what he was doing. In between his nagging mother who still doesn't want him to move out of the house—even after a year of doing so—and his father who just lounged in the couch while he single-handedly moved all his boxes, it left him drained. After that exhausting night, he just passed out on his bare bed. So maybe he did write it down and needed to go there later.

Reading the blurry digits on his alarm clock, he waited for his eyes to adjust. "6:45 am," he murmured. "Shoot!" he shot up from his bed—got a bit dizzy because of standing too fast— and prepared for the day in the fastest way he can.

He arrived 20 minutes late but luckily the professor still isn't inside. What could he have expected anyway? It was the first day, he remembered one of his professors mentioned, "If it's the first day of school, absence, late and almost everything is excused, but do that on the second day then consider yourself dropped."

 _'They really follow that first day policy huh, good thing.'_

He was about to enter when he heard a familiar voice call out, "Shikamaru?" He turned to look at the owner of the voice and saw Choji. Funny, he doesn't really remember having another class with him.

"Why are you here?" Choji asked. Shikamaru raised a what-do-you-mean brow in return.

Choji, who understood what he meant sighed and explained, "It's too early for you to be here. In fact, you're not supposed to be here, _at all."_

"What do you mean?" Shikamaru was undoubtedly confused, if he even took the effort of writing his schedule for today on his palm, it meant that it should be something important since he knows he's not the type to just forget. Choji, seeing the look on his face, gave up and exhaled loudly, "Have you forgotten that your earliest subject is till 10 in the morning?"

"Yeah but I even scribbled the schedule on my palm, so I must have a class here."

Choji looked at Shikamaru's empty hand, devoid of anything but—well, the hand. Choji worried if Shikamaru had been getting enough sleep lately, it was very unlike him to forget his schedule and come to the campus earlier than the required time. "Are you...okay?" Choji looked really weirded out but Shikamaru just focused on the question first, "Yeah, I'm okay."

"If you say so."

"Ugh, why are you doubting me? You do see the note, right?"

"There's nothing on your hand."

"Huh?" Shikamaru is very confused. The note occupied his whole palm, in all capital letters. Why isn't Choji seeing it?

"There's nothing there, come on you need your sleep. Get out of here, find a nice place to rest," Choji placed both of his hands on each side of Shikamaru's shoulders and lead him outside, "You're losing yourself too early in the semester. We are all trying to keep our sanity intact a little longer. You do know that you went through all the trouble to get _all_ of your classes to start at ten right? Since—I quote— _'I don't want to go to school so early in the morning.'_ "

Shikamaru remembered everything he did just to push the schedule he wanted.

A flash of yellow and a faint smell of alcohol passed by quickly but he wasn't able to follow it as he was walking himself out of the building and when he looked at his palm again, the writings were getting blurry until they were gone. "What the—" then he decided, maybe Choji was right, he needed sleep.

He found a place to rest beneath the shade of a tree at the University Park. Only a few people were around either because it is too early or it's the first day and people want to exercise the _first day rule._

He laid comfortably on the grassy floor, his bag was his pillow as he stared at the clouds passing by through the gaps in the foliage of the tree. ' _Oh that looked like a chicken_ ,' he thought. A few minutes passed and he finds himself slowly drifting to sleep. "Shikamaru?" a high pitched voice sucked the sleep out of his system. It can only belong to one person, Ino.

He heard footsteps growing louder as he opened one eye and sees Ino standing near him, books in hand. "It _is_ you," Ino concluded, invading the space beside him and sat down, "What are you doing here so early?"

Shikamaru shrugged, not really wanting to tell the story again.

"You said that all your classes start at 10. You're not the type to even be bothered to go to school 15 minutes before time, yet you're _here_? On the first day of school?" Ino made it sound a lot more outrageous than he thought it was but then again, coming from a person who knew him all his life, it must be _really_ out of character. She doesn't seem like she's going to let the topic die down any sooner too. She needs answers and Shikamaru didn't even want to try to convince her to drop it since it would be more dragging, so he told her.

It was because of a simple note on his hand, that even if it was troublesome he went to school early. _He_ went to school _early._ He decided that those two words don't really fit in a sentence.

All of a sudden there was this spark in her eyes—more like an explosion of several revelations—that Shikamaru didn't want to understand. He doesn't even understand her way of thinking and he knows fully well that if he asks, she isn't going to stop anytime soon and he needed his sleep. Following that thought he closed his eyes and shrugged her off but no... Ino just _had_ to go on with it.

"You do realize that's the legend of the school, right?" she chirped, the enthusiasm oozing out of her like a suffocating aura that he can feel even with his eyes closed.

' _Oh god no,'_ Shikamaru thought. He has heard of it, quite a few thousand times already. The legend of finding your 'soulmate'. It was said that if you write stuff on your skin, it will be mirrored on your soulmate's. Their parents whom have studied here before affirmed that legend but Shikamaru still doesn't believe it. Their parents like to pull their legs. If he did have a soulmate he would've seen markings on his skin before. He was already on his second year in this university and still no signs of that person. If that's true, if he really did have a ' _soulmate'_ then, why now? Why so late?

Ino scolded him for being unromantic, "Come on! Don't you think it's fun?"

"Not really"

"I came to this school because of the legend! Everybody wants to see theirs, and you have a chance right in front of you! Aren't you the least bit interested?"

"Not really, I mean can you even see the meaning of _'soul mate_ ' in the dictionary? Is it even a real word?" Shikamaru rolled his eyes. This legend could possibly be made by people who wanted to romanticize some random stuff that happened years ago.

"It _is_ a word!" Ino argued strongly while immediately fishing for her phone in her bag.

Shikamaru just shrugged as his friend tapped furiously on her phone.

"A close friend who completely understands you, a person who is perfectly suited to another in temperament." Ino read straight out of the dictionary app on her phone, after doing so she brought the phone close to Shikamaru's face to prove her friend wrong. "It _is_ a word and a soul mate _is_ real!" Ino insisted.

"Uhuh." was Shikamaru's non-committal reply. If his tone was not sending Ino the signal that he _really_ doesn't want to talk about it, he hoped the expression on his face is a dead giveaway.

 _'Looks like it wasn't effective'_

"Just this one time! Please just write something down and try just this once and if it fails I won't ever talk about it! I'll give up! I'll drop it."

If there's one thing that Shikamaru knows about Ino it's that there's no way she's ever going to drop a subject that she was curious about but if it would make her shut up, even for a minute, he'll do it and be done with it.

"Fine," he said exasperatedly. "This will fail and this will be the last time I'll ever hear of this, okay?" 5 minutes in the conversation and he was already tired.

"What do I write?" he asked, pen in hand, "My name?"

"Your name? Hell no! We just wanna see her! Not freak her out! We should just do what she did to you this morning. We'll write down a name of the building—a meeting place, and we'll wait for her! Courting her would have to come after we know who she is so we could work things out on how we could win her over." Ino babbled. She is so motivated when it comes to these things.

"Don't you have classes?" Shikamaru asked not liking where things were going. "It's the first day, nobody would care if I'm there or not." She smiled and he gave up on the possibility of getting out of this mess. He had time to spare anyway, better to finish this now before Ino could take over _his_ relationship. She used _we_ and she doesn't look like she's going to back down anytime soon.

Shikamaru wrote the time and place down on his hand and Ino blabbered on about how romantic this is and so on which he tuned out as he closed his eyes to wait before he knew it he nodded off.

"Shikamaru wake up! It's almost time for you to meet her!" Ino shook him awake.

"Yeah," Shikamaru mumbled.

He and Ino stood up and went on their way to meet his ' _soulmate'_. He decided to keep the quotation marks on since he still doesn't believe in all of this.

"Hey, kid you're on my class, right? Can you collect the handouts I gave earlier. There were some mistakes on it and here are the correct version." A professor they passed by said towards who he thinks is a first year, judging by the naive aura that she's giving out even from afar. She looked troubled and was discreetly glancing at her watch but like all other freshmen, complied.

Shikamaru slightly hoped that Ino was the one cornered by that professor so he could get out of this but, nope, fate just had to be cruel to him today, of all times.

He walked in a slow pace and saw the freshman trip from a non existent rock. Sure enough the handouts that she was holding came flying.

Shikamaru is not a heartless person so he knelt and helped the girl pick up the scattered papers all the while getting a few closer glimpses. He took his time picking things up and even let Ino walk ahead of him. "Thanks," the girl said while moving from paper to paper.

He noticed she had blonde hair tied in a messy bun. He mumbled a "No prob," as he handed the girl what he collected getting a quick view of her shirt that had a well known band's logo on it paired with paint-splattered jeans and combat boots. "Be careful next time," he bid as Ino yelled for him to get his ass moving. He lazily waved a hand as he stood up and walked away missing the chance to get a full view of the girl's face. Not that it mattered, he was just a little interested anyway.

The place he specified on his hand where they would meet is near one of the buildings for his next class. It was not exactly secluded but it's quiet enough to suit his needs. It was a bench shaded by a huge tree behind it. He remembered sleeping there several times.

He and Ino waited for someone to come and sit there and after 10 minutes someone did. Ino squealed into his ear in a higher pitched voice than her usual while tugging him excitedly.

He halted Ino's insistent tugging and looked at her meaningfully, Ino got the message and stayed far enough to be discreet but near enough to hear the conversation.

Shikamaru started approaching the girl and took a seat beside her. He doesn't know how to do this. Why does he even have to? Ino's here, watching, judging him, that's the reason. He can even feel her stare boring holes on his back but he knew that the least he could do is make things less awkward for him and the girl. If Ino was right this would not have to end on this first meeting. And how do you ask a stranger to see their hand without sounding like a lunatic?

 _'Hi, I'm Shikamaru and there's a possibility that you're my soulmate. Can you please confirm it by showing me your hand?'_ If he tried saying it like that, she'd definitely think he's a lunatic. Why did he even agree to do this?

Apparently he doesn't need to be the one to initiate the conversation because after a few seconds of inconspicuous sidelong glances the girl smiled flirtily and introduced herself.

"Hello," she said and raised her right hand for him to shake. He was happy to get this over with, so he looked at her offered hand and shook it. No writing, he was about to excuse himself when he realized that he wrote on his left hand. Ugh, this is a drag.

He held the girl's hand for a while longer, as he stared into her eyes. The woman felt a bit conscious and fidgeted as Shikamaru continued staring, thinking of what he should do to get this over with.

He put his other hand in his pocket, feeling his pen and also an idea emerging.

He let go of the girl's hand looking as if he's embarrassed. He turned to her completely and reached out for the girl's left hand hesitantly. He wrote a random combination of numbers on her hand and nodded slightly. He told her that he needed to go to class already -an excuse the girl probably took as his effort to hide his embarrassment. He offered her a shy smile and scratched his cheek for good measure before walking away completely.

Ino was frozen by the time Shikamaru came back. "What just happened? Didn't I tell you not to freak her out?" Ino panicked. Shikamaru sighed, "It doesn't really matter. She doesn't have any writings on her hand and none appeared on mine." And for the nth time today she was surprised but somehow relieved. She knows Shikamaru's soulmate is out there and the "hunt" is exciting since the first sign showed after a year of waiting but deep down she thought that the girl they saw there was a bit too ordinary to be in her friend's league.

She knew Shikamaru. If it isn't interesting enough, if it isn't going to keep him entertained it won't occupy him for so long. The girl was normal, short brown hair, small cute face wearing a floral dress but she lacked what Ino called the ' _flair'_ that her friend needed in his life and she really wants to see Shikamaru totally floored and awed by someone who's just existing. "Now that would be a view, hah!" Ino thought aloud and Shikamaru just looked at her with a what-the-hell expression which Ino replied to with an innocent smile.

Shikamaru stared at his empty palm and closed it with a feeling he couldn't really describe. It felt somewhere in the middle of confusion, relief, disappointment and ...thrill, like playing board games with an opponent he couldn't see through and he just can't seem to calm down.

He smirked at this sudden mystery appearing before him. What's more fun than putting together puzzle pieces to finally see the bigger picture? Maybe he wasn't able to find _her_ yet, but by the gods, he swears he will. He needed this game of hide and seek and he trusts the woman on the other end to not make it easy.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** yo! update sched is once a week... *waves* thanks to those who followed, faved and reviewed! You all inspire me to work faster! Enjoy~

 **disclaimer** : I don't own naruto

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 **CHAPTER 2**

Things are not going as planned. Shikamaru decided that the best way he could approach this issue is to wait for things to reveal themselves. Little clues would come to him with the words that the girl will write on her hand in a daily basis. Gathering all those little clues would paint him a picture of how this girl's life is. Eventually, he knew it wouldn't take long for him to discover who she is but that was solely based on nothing but the fact that she wrote her schedule on her palm for the first day of school.

He sighed. There's no use getting worked up over this. Only a day passed by and maybe there really is nothing immediate enough to be written on her hand. He, himself, can agree to that since it's only the first week. Maybe, she just had to write that down because it's the building she hasn't found yet on the orientation day.

Wait. Why was he following this thought process already? The idea that the _other party_ exists is still not an established fact.

This is taking too much of his energy. It's not much of a drag than it is a bore to have nothing to do than sleep in class. Without anything worthwhile to do he just kept thinking and completely ignoring the professor speaking in front of the room who was writing stuff he already knew on the whiteboard.

The next day came and still nothing. Is he frustrated? Definitely not! He told himself to calm down and wait. Waiting—he decided, is an action he is actually in favor of. He doesn't want to exert himself anymore than he should have the second time he tried.

So he waited.

He heard a knock at his apartment door, "Shikamaru! Open up!" he heard Ino's voice. Good timing. He needed a distraction but why is she here?

He opened the door and saw Choji beside the annoying woman, with his usual close eyed toothy smile.

"Come in. I don't have a choice, do I?" he joked in a deadpan voice as he led them to the table.

"Thanks for the enthusiasm," Ino rolled her eyes while putting the snacks and drinks she and Choji bought. "We just came because we're bored."

"By 'we' you mean just yourself and Choji got dragged into it, right?" Shikamaru corrected while opening a can of soda but that's just it, Ino never _just visits._ "I don't have any classes either so it's okay," Choji defended and Ino raised her brow as if to say ' _see?'._

She took a sip from her own can and smiled widely. Shikamaru's not finding that expression as a good sign. "So any writings lately?" Ino started.

He knew it. He just knew it. "I thought we decided on dropping it?" came his brief reply.

"What writings?" Choji looked lost and Ino excitedly narrated the story of how he has a soul mate this, soul mate that. She told him everything in excruciating detail even including a few side comments.

Choji looked like he remembered the time when his friend was acting weird and figured that _that_ might be the case. And Ino just made it her noble mission to find that girl for Shikamaru. When Ino started to outline a plan on how to trap the _supposed_ girl for Shikamaru, that's when he decided to speak up. "Look, if she exists," he looked at both of them, "I'll find her, let me take over the search for once. I mean she _is_ my soul mate. Isn't it supposed to be that way?" he asked.

Choji nodded, "Yeah, and maybe the reason why Shikamaru didn't meet the girl is because you…" he gestured to Ino, "...were the one who's interested in finding her not him. Maybe, there's a rule to it."

"But this is just so exciting! Ya know? I mean, I wanna see the girl he's supposed to tolerate for the rest of his life!" she pointed to Shikamaru mockingly. " Can you even imagine him making an effort by himself, Choji?"

Shikamaru just snorted at that, ' _point made, Ino... Point made'._ But there is still this part of him that thinks ' _maybe she just doesn't exist'._ Maybe soulmates aren't real. Maybe that's just something invented so that other people would have hope they won't be alone forever.

"What do you mean she doesn't exist? She does! You saw your own hands and even went to a class you didn't belong to, she is legit!" Ino retorted at Shikamaru's unintentionally voiced out thoughts.

"Then tell me why didn't the girl at the bench have anything on her hand?"

"She isn't your soulmate then! That's also a possibility! Maybe the real one was just running late at the time!"

"You don't have solid proof that she exists, so please don't just expect me to believe?"

"That's why I'm here now! To ask you about it! So? Any news yet?" she asked.

"Nope. No period, no line, no nothing. The legend is not true. The end," Shikamaru said with finality.

"Then how do you explain those lines popping up on your stupid hand when you admitted it yourself that you didn't write it!" Ino asked frustratedly. "That has got to mean something!"

"No." He laid down. "Uhh, I must've wrote it down by mistake!"

"Why would you? You don't have a single class in that building on that specific day or in any specific day and honestly, you won't write something down by mistake especially if it's going to have to keep you awake earlier than you are supposed to."

He had to admit that was a pretty solid argument.

He would have retaliated with the: I-was-too-tired-I-wrote-it-and-I'm-human-too-I-also-make-mistakes, but fortunately for him, his phone rang. Unfortunately, it was his mother.

"Hey...mom," Shikamaru greeted, he braced himself for whatever scolding he will get from her.

"Why the hell aren't you calling? I thought we talked about this! Give your mom a call and tell her you're still alive!" Yoshino said in her calmest—because if she decided to be louder Shikamaru was confident that she can deafen him in one scream.

Shikamaru doesn't want to start another argument so instead of answering his mom's rhetorical question he responded with: "Ino and Choji are here," as he put the phone on loudspeaker. Ino immediately said 'Hi!' with Choji doing the same.

"Hey Ino, Choji! How's my son doing? Did he even move his lazy ass to serve tea for you two?" Yoshino got side tracked with Ino and Choji—just like Shikamaru hoped. Dealing with his mom by himself is too tiring, especially with the week he is having.

"Auntie Yoshino, Ino here! I knew he will not be bothered, so Choji and I brought the drinks to him!" Ino happily replied "Oh! I have something to tell you!" Ino screeched. To be honest, whatever sound Ino makes is considered a screech for Shikamaru but since he got used to her being around, it's now considered a _friendly_ screech.

He guessed Ino was talking about the 'soul mate' thing again. ' _How many people does she have to tell that to?'_

"But it would be hard to give you the complete details through phone…" Ino thought aloud.

"If it was about Shikamaru _finally_ doing something for a change then I'll be glad to hear it! Honestly that kid!" Shikamaru snorted in response, "But it's already late and you kids need sleep! I just called to know if my son's still alive. Maybe, you can give me a call whenever you're free." Yoshino added.

"Why don't we go to there for a visit, Auntie? We have nothing better to do on the weekends _and_ I could give you all the details of Shikamaru's fantastic tale!" was Ino's bright idea.

"Sure! Finish what you all need to do there and go home! I'll cook for you this weekend." Yoshino chirped happily.

He doesn't really mind bringing them all home since they're already like the siblings he never had. His mom loves them, especially Ino since she gets all the details about him that he never talks about.

The two said 'yes' to the offer and handled his mother for him by talking to her for a few more minutes.

"It's late now, you two should go back to your dorms! You still have classes tomorrow! I'll see you on Saturday! Bye." She ended the call and as expected, the two decided to go home like she wanted.

* * *

And here he goes again, back to the waiting game...He waited—what, 4 or 5 days now? Still, _still_ nothing. It became a lot more tiring _than_ doing something.

He really had to do something to get rid of that nagging feeling that he couldn't even describe as anything specific. This hypothetical person is twisting his mind and they haven't even met yet.

* * *

Six days and he _is_ tired. Good thing Ino and Choji decided to come home with him or else his mother will not have anyone to talk to. He didn't want to do anything but relax this weekend and he is more than willing to give the two as bait for his mother.

What he didn't expect is for the two to ring his doorbell at 3 am with Ino insisting for them to _finally_ put his car to use. It's not like he didn't want to use it, it's just that his apartment is close to school, like a 15 minute walk. Besides, looking for a parking space had always been such a hassle.

Shikamaru parked his car on their garage seeing his father's parked as well. The drive from their Uni to their house is almost two hours on a good day which turns to a 3-4 hour drive during peak seasons. It took them two and a half hour to reach home and Ino and Choji were both fast asleep behind him after an hour. "Wake up you two, we're here." He mentioned once. He shook them for good measure before climbing out of the car and circling to the back to get their things.

Ino got up first and started shaking Choji to wake him up. When he opened his eyes Ino got out of the car as well, Choji groggily followed her in getting their things out of the trunk.

Yoshino welcomed all of them which isn't a surprise because they are all used to her waking up early and preparing breakfast for the whole family.

They all went inside the house and saw Shikaku—who still had both his eyes closed, lounging on the couch in his pyjamas.

"Why don't you all have lunch here?" Yoshino asked, missing the times she used to cook for all of them.

Shikamaru just nodded at whatever. He needs sleep. It was not his idea to go on the trip home in the middle of the night. The two just knocked on his apartment with their bags intact and insisted to get going.

He was tired and he needed sleep, for goodness sake he should have just told them to take the train, but _no_ … Ino just had to bother his neighbors and he just had to open the door to stop her rampage and so here they all are.

His mother greeted the two by asking them the normal, "How's college?" What does she even expect to hear from them as an answer? College is good? College is fine? ' _Hah the irony.'_

"By the way, you know of the soulmate legend in the school right?" Ino started and Shikamaru turned to look at her face to check whatever the hell she's trying to pull now and Ino just smiled at him.

"Yeah, we know of it. We had experienced it when we were studying there," Yoshino fondly said. ' _Yeah, I heard that more times than I ever wanted,'_ Shikamaru rolled his eyes and didn't dare listen to Ino's rant.

"Oh, you see Shikamaru had the same experience! But he's so lazy to even find his future wife," Shikamaru will not let himself answer to that blatant taunt of Ino's so he just sat on the couch opposite to where his father's at.

Shikamaru can feel the stare his father kept on him. He just acknowledged him by a side glance and a shrug and his father didn't push an explanation further, that was what Ino was here for.

Ino does her job… _really_ well. She is now telling his mother everything they did. If it was up to her, everyone in the university would know that Shikamaru was looking for the girl at the other end of these writings.

Yoshino wanted to hear everything and her son's uninterested expression on his face is spoiling the whole story so she gestured for Ino stop for a bit.

Shikamaru was jolted from his musings when he saw his mother stand up. He looked at Ino, silently asking what his mother might have said before going somewhere. Ino just shrugged.

Yoshino came back, "We're going to have Oden for lunch," she said and Choji's face lit up immediately, ' _He's probably fed up from having to eat instant noodles for a week now,'_ Shikamaru noted. But what was with the sudden change of topic? His mom loved hearing stories about him moving about and doing something worthwhile which he seldom does. Now, why did she change the topic?

"I have all the ingredients that I need except for a few things—" she grabbed a marker and took one of Shikamaru's hands—"buy these for me," she bid in a tone that he had learned never to go against.

He wanted to argue that he was tired and that he drove all of them here but he just swallowed all of the logical things that he can point out and headed for the door. ' _She just wanted me out of here,'_ Shikamaru concluded.

Ino laughed, "Gosh, I've never seen someone so uninterested in their own love life! Have you ever felt drawn to someone in your 20 years of existence?" She teased.

He was _tired_ and maybe it was just his exhaustion taking over his mouth that even though he knew it was just one of Ino's sarcastic rhetorical questions, he still replied, "I think I did…" he let his words hang before continuing, "...I can't remember where exactly, but I've seen eyes that looked so devastated, I almost took pity on her but just when I was about to do something—I don't know what—she smiled." He went on while lazily opening their front door. "Jeez, how can something so broken be so beautiful?"

The whole house became quiet, not at all expecting Shikamaru's answer.

Shikamaru stopped, "It's been a long time—" and turned to glance at Choji, "and now, I'm not so sure anymore." Choji slightly nodded his head, he knows what Shikamaru meant and from the _glint_ in Shikaku's eyes, it seems that his dad has an idea of what he's talking about. He thought he did a good job in hiding it, but well, it's _his dad._

Everyone was still frozen stiff and Shikamaru took it as an opportunity to leave immediately.

He quickly hopped into his car, turning the ignition and shifting the gear stick onto the reverse gear transmission moving the car out of the garage when he heard Ino's voice, "Hey! What was that about? Explain yourself!"

Instead of stopping, he stepped on the gas pedal and sped towards the market.

Shikamaru looked at his palm intently. "Special Chicken Karaage Ramen, Hokkaido Miso Ramen, Spicy Seafood Ramen?" he read out the bottom of the list his mother wrote on his hand. Since when did several different ramen become ingredients to Oden?

He sighed. What does she even intend on doing with these kinds of ramen? She does realize that this is what all of them had been eating on their first week, right? Having them eat instant noodles when they are at home is just plain cruel!

Shikamaru had no choice but to buy everything listed on his palm - he should've really paid attention when his mom had been writing down stuff so he could have stopped her from noting unnecessary things, and after fetching two vegetables that his mom lacked for her Oden, he went to the noodles section.

Staring at the labels of different flavored noodles, Shikamaru took the ones that are included on his list. He paid for them and went back home in a rush to finally go to sleep.

"Are you that attached to instant noodles, Shikamaru?" His mother asked him when she got the paper bag with all the things she asked for and more. "You wrote that, didn't you?" He muttered as he showed her his palm that clearly had all three ramen flavors written out.

"Why would I make you buy those noodles if I'm already making oden? Besides, I won't make you eat instant noodles at home." Shikamaru didn't really have any energy left to hear everything his mother has to say so he tuned it all out and when she looked like she was done he went back to his room.

"I can't even call that an argument considering you only answered once," Choji teased as he sat on a separate futon beside Shikamaru's bed eating one of his favorite potato chips. Sure enough, Choji heard everything his mother said.

Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, It's more like a one-sided annihilation," he replied making Choji snicker. "Good thing Ino's already asleep," they can only imagine how much Ino will badger them if she's awake. "Yoshino-san told us to sleep first, she'll just wake us up for lunch later," Choji added.

Shikamaru acknowledged by nodding mindlessly as he went to his desk and uncapped the alcohol bottle and poured some of the contents onto his hand trying to erase the marker ink. "Troublesome," he mumbled finding it hard to erase the multiple ramen labels on his hand. "I wonder what type of marker she used," he went on.

He gave up and just threw himself onto his bed, his hand dangling at the side of the bed. "It's still not erased?" Choji asked, "That's one tough marker."

"And she says she didn't write all this ramen." He looked at Choji from the corner of his eye, seeing his friend change the expression on his face, "What?" Shikamaru asked turning to Choji completely.

"What if...she didn't really write it down?" Choji said not really sure of his question.

"Don't tell me Ino rubbed off on you?"

"No, think about it! It won't disappear even with alcohol! I mean no matter how permanent the marker is it should at least smudge or fade a little. But it didn't, right?"

"So?"

"Come on Shikamaru, you're the smart one here! All the evidence are in front of both of us! Do you think… maybe Ino's _right_ about you having a soulmate at uni?"

Shikamaru suddenly grew stiff as if he remembered something important. He then slowly lifted his hand to stare at the not-so-girly handwriting. ' _Great! Why now? And it's a ramen lover! What a clue! Instant noodles is the national food for college students! Everyone loves ramen!'_ he thought.

There was a moment of silence and Choji hesitated in pushing the issue further.

Shikamaru closed his hands, trying to keep the frustrating letters away from his sight. He gave up on this a long time ago and he just thought looking for her would be… fun—again that is if she exists—which is the highest possibility now that another note appeared on his hand, but at this moment he's just completely...spent.

"Are you ready for next week?" Shikamaru changed the topic not so subtly and unlike Ino, Choji took it as a sign to drop it.

Choji knows this is a bit complicated for his friend considering his ' _situation_ ' but he also knows that Shikamaru has his own way of handling his problems—systematically one step at a time—that if Shikamaru doesn't want to talk about it, it doesn't mean he's not thinking about it, it just means he doesn't want to deal with it now so he decided to go along with the obvious change in topic.

"Why? What's to be prepared about next week?" Choji asked sincerely curious.

"It's your second week of college, didn't anyone warn you?" Shikamaru continued being cryptic still staring at the ceiling, remembering how shocked he was last year to see unsuspecting professors, students, janitors, security guards and even the head of each department get dragged from one place to another while all of the 2nd years and up acted as if everything's normal.

"Uhh.. well, the College of Engineering's welcoming festival starts on Monday? Is that the one I should be worried about?"

"I'm not going to give out any spoilers but everyone at Uni knows that the college of engineering has the most _unique_ way of welcoming first years." Shikamaru smirked ' _Oh if you only knew_ '

Choji felt a chill run down his spine, "On what level of…' _uniqueness'_ are we talking about? They told me this year's theme is Wizard of Oz."

"Let's just say last year's theme was Spongebob Squarepants, and one of the professors that played as Mrs. Puff was scarred for life. Expect the _best_ three days of your life."


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Thanks for your support :)

Disclaimer: I don't own naruto

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Shikamaru did tell Choji to prepare for this day, ' _College of Engineering's Welcoming Week'_. It was another Monday and instead of waking up as late as he could, he decided to get up and check how his friend is holding up.

He can still remember it quite clearly. He was a freshman then and is still new to everything that college is but he chose to not let it show on his face. What can be the huge difference between university life and high school? He just moved into a bigger facility but the place is still as boring as hell. That was what he thought before… before the welcoming week of the College of Engineering.

It was the hottest topic in the university come first Friday of the academic school year. He didn't bother to know the details since he's not part of the engineering department but that was his mistake.

The reason why it _was_ the hottest topic every year is because when the welcoming week begins, the students from the Engineering department doesn't really care which degree program you are enrolled in. They don't care whether you are taking undergraduate or graduate studies, masteral or doctorate, what matters is if you'll be useful to their cause.

Every year the prize is the same, the legendary ' _First Priority Enlistment Status'_ , which basically means you can have the first pick of subjects that you want. This is why every year the battle becomes fiercer since the seniors come up with the most out of this world obstacles that Shikamaru remembers being dragged into.

All of his memories from last year's welcoming week gave him a jolt of curiosity to know how Choji will handle it.

Last year even as a student from the College of Law, he was still dragged along to this welcoming week. It was the most troublesome part of his life—except going back home to get scolded by his mother. Knowing all this, and considering the fact the Choji is in the Engineering department he really can't fight the urge to not watch.

He took a bath and prepared to go to school early not wanting to miss a single moment of entertainment.

As expected the university was so loud even though it was just 7 in the morning. He wandered aimlessly. A stroll around isn't half bad just as long as he stays out of the others' way.

"Shikamaru!" a breathless voice called. He turned and saw Choji holding onto his knees to keep himself upright.

"Isn't it exactly like I told you?" Shikamaru smirked.

"Yeah considering you only told me to prepare myself—which I did, I just didn't know what to prepare for and honestly—I didn't think welcoming week would be this thrilling and exhausting for the most part." Choji replied between deep breaths. "It's going to be a lot more fun if they cut the running part into half!" he complained and Shikamaru laughed.

Shikamaru waited for Choji to start breathing normally again before asking, "So what were you running for?"

Choji straightened up, "Dorothy's body parts. Most of it are not in Kansas anymore."

"I'm pretty sure Dorothy made it to Oz in one piece."

"Well news flash, in our College's version she didn't! We are all searching for one of her body parts!"

"Why not just grab an anatomical model inside one of the labs?"

"We tried that but Dorothy's body parts has a red ribbon tied to it or a blue plaid cloth attached."

Shikamaru suddenly saw someone carrying a human heart in a jar that was decorated by a blue plaid cloth and a red ribbon, he then asked Choji, "Are you also looking for Dorothy's… internal organs?"

Choji laughed, "Yeah, the tornado tore Dorothy up pretty bad." He joked.

"Oh, if that's the case, I'm pretty sure I saw someone sneaking around with Dorothy's heart in hand." Shikamaru pointed towards the direction the student took and was about to walk away when he felt his arm being dragged by Choji. "Why are you dragging me?"

"Two heads are better than one and besides you don't have any classes yet, just help me catch the person who stole Dorothy's heart."

"Ugh," was Shikamaru's hopeless last grunt as he let himself get dragged to heaven knows where.

Choji chased the guy holding Dorothy's heart around the University park, while Shikamaru stopped for a while to catch his breath.

Shikamaru knows that if Choji do not catch the guy anytime soon, some other student will end up noticing them chasing the heart around and there will be another competition. Shikamaru ran a week's worth of running and he doesn't want that to be in vain.

He waited for the ' _heart thief'_ to round the corner as he waited patiently.

The 'heart thief'—sure enough, went his way with Choji not far behind—oblivious of the fact that Shikamaru was waiting behind one of the trees. Shikamaru propped one foot forward and watched as the heart thief fall for his trap and took a dive on the ground. He saw the jar fall out of the _heart thief's_ hand and crash on the ground.

Choji wasted no time to grab the heart, ribbon and all, and ran to the representative for the Dorothy challenge.

The heart thief kept his eyes on Choji's form darting to his destination and Shikamaru took that as an opportunity to take a few silent steps backwards and went for the trees to hide kicking a rock near the heart thief.

The heart thief swore the rock to death in such colorful language that would put the rainbow to shame. He then swirled all of a sudden and Shikamaru saw him rushing towards another student that was holding what he thinks was Dorothy's leg.

Shikamaru breathed a sigh of relief thanking the heavens for not letting the heart thief see him and be the reason for his wrath. The Nara heir remembered hindering someone's win on a challenge last year and that person swore that she will get even.

When the heart thief was out of sight he jogged to where Choji mentioned the booth for Dorothy was at.

A yellow blur sped past him holding what he thinks is a… _severed arm,_ dripping _blood_ and all.

"Shikamaru!" Choji called from behind a tree and jogged at the same pace as Shikamaru.

Shikamaru turned and looked at his friend, "Why haven't you given that heart to the receptionist?"

"My life was in danger just a second ago. I saw the ' _heart thief'_ pass by here so I hid behind that tree. This event can mean the end of me, I'm going to run now." He bid and headed for the booth.

He saw Choji pass the heart to the receptionist—cosplaying as Dorothy—who did not even bat an eye and just happily accepted _her heart_ , dripping with formaldehyde, and cheerfully stamped Choji's card. He noticed the blonde girl with the severed arm picking an orange t-shirt that has a picture of what looks like the yellow brick road with the Engineering building at the end. The words, ' _Welcome to the Land of Oz'_ is printed in the classic font style of the famous children show. There's also a sub-heading at the bottom that says,

' _Engineering Opening Week'_

' _We're all lost here!'_

He turned in time to see Choji choose a blue-colored one.

Shikamaru watched Choji and the girl talk for a bit and Choji laughed at something the girl said with a look of amazement on his face before his friend bid the girl 'bye' and approached him.

"She made it to the receptionist! Can you believe that? This challenge almost killed me and she made it out of it without a scratch!" Choji proudly remarked. "Yeah, even I got dragged and I'm not on the same course!" Shikamaru complained.

"But she's one lucky girl! She said she was chasing a different body part when an arm fell from the sky!"

"That would be the ideal way of winning things. Not much effort required,"Shikamaru thought aloud.

"Yeah, we had to chase a guy around to get Dorothy's heart." Choji sighed.

"What other challenges are you planning to do today?" Shikamaru asked wanting to know if there will be another need for him to run a lap around the campus.

"It's weird that you know a lot about our opening week when you're a law student, goes to show that you learned a lot last year." Choji laughed, "As far as I know there are nine challenges, I think I'll manage doing another two before class starts. Will you be helping me?" He continued and waited for his friend's answer.

Shikamaru slumped his shoulders, grunted and looked at Choji with a tired expression on his face and Choji replied with a snort followed by stifled laughter.

"I'm planning to go to the ' _Marshall Mallow Pillow Dodgeball'_ game. It just says dodgeball using pillows it can't do much damage. Plus, we'll be randomly grouped so I think this one's the safest after that bloody hunt for Dorothy." Choji narrated as he walked towards where the map says ' _venue for dodgeball'._

"You know what I think?" Shikamaru started, "I think you shouldn't underestimate the people in your department. They made the bring-me Dorothy's body parts into a _hunt._ So I'm begging you to not keep calm," was his honest advice.

Sure enough, Shikamaru was right. Dodgeball is a perilous sports for those without any athletic bone in the body. Choji can manage. He can dodge responsively to an attack because their family made it a point that they are trained for protecting themselves against, to be honest, unrealistic danger.

Shikamaru knows he's studying to be a future lawyer, he let his mind wander off, and that it is a bit of a dangerous profession but he could ward any specific danger by living like his father. Taking only minor cases and some major ones that doesn't carry threat with them. He had been passed on the Nara trait of knowing troublesome situations and how to stay away from them. Unfortunately, being affiliated to the Yamanaka's were thought to not be troublesome, before Ino was born that is. Ino was more decisive than Choji though seeing as Choji hesitated on willingly putting his life in danger for the dodge ball challenge.

Waiting is not something Shikamaru had learned to appreciate within the last few days. He feels himself getting irritated over every little delay. His impatience is beginning to be a drag when he's supposed to be keeping himself entertained today.

"Get it over with. First priority enlistment, remember?" Shikamaru reminded his friend.

"Fine. Geez what got you so moody today?" Choji huffed sounding more nervous than irate but a wave from a woman with a familiar face and he jogged a little more eagerly.

Shikamaru watched as Choji and blondie talk to each other like long time friends. Hell, he looked more comfortable talking to her than Ino.

He got this unwitting urge to somehow join in the conversation but before he made a step closer to them, a whistle bellowed.

"Stand in a single line people! We'll group you in random to get the bloodbath started! I meant dodge ball. Oops?" The announcer—who is in a ridiculous Marshall Mallow cosplay—didn't look like he meant the correction he made.

The participants stood in a neat line, with Choji behind his blonde motivated looking friend.

They counted 1-2-1-2 alternately as the announcer pointed to each student lined up.

Choji and the Blondie were separated into opposing teams, which the two clearly didn't appreciate, based on the scowls they're wearing.

"Now that you're divided into two, go to your groupmates and let's go to the gym where the real challenge will take place!" The announcer happily declared. Shikamaru can't comprehend how the announcer can move so enthusiastically with all the white foam he's wearing.

"Give us back our pillows asshole!" Complained one of the senior students they passed by.

"Can't you sleep without your doggy pillow for the next two days? We're in the College of Engineering, wusses! We teach ourselves to sleep anywhere, at any time and in any position! With or without our comfort pillows!" The dodgeball rep retaliated, smirking. ' _He's enjoying this too, I see,'_ Shikamaru noted. Then the announcer switched back from being a snarky classmate to his hosting job and ushered the participants towards the gym. He did not even glance back to the still protesting seniors behind him.

Shikamaru slowly followed.

Entering the gym he noticed two pillow forts labeled Team A and B. Choji and his temporary teammates went to the A fort and Blondie to the B fort.

The pillows gathered are random—cute ones, animal looking ones, ones with anime characters in questionable poses, and ones that look like they used to be white three years ago, most of them still clean because it's the start of the semester but all of them knew they were bound to grow filthy with each passing day.

"Okay! Listen up, only rule here is to not kill each other. Instructions are once you get hit you're out of the game, and the people who are left standing after five minutes wins. You'd have to throw all the pillows in your pile and if not well no one wins and you'd have to line up again." The announcer droned on. "Which I know, is such a hassle on your part, but tough luck? Right?" he shrugged.

' _Well he's good at riling people up. He still looks ridiculous though.'_

"Oh and additional prize for this challenge is, obviously, a pillow. Complete with an awesome motivational print on it." He raised the pillow showing them all what's written, ' _I survived bloody dodgeball, I will survive this semester!'_ "We all need inspiration like this, don't we?" he smiled sickeningly sweet. How he managed to look menacing while stuffed in that costume baffles Shikamaru.

A whistle echoed followed by a hurried, " _Timer starts now!"_ It took the participating freshies 30 seconds of blankly staring at each other before the first pillow was thrown at a destructive speed. Choji's teammate dropped onto the ground with a thud, "One down, 13 to go," Blondie smiled the most devilish smile Shikamaru had seen on a girl other than that, Blondie looked twice as deadly as Ino.

Choji frantically dodged the pillows rocketing towards him and his teammates. He gulped nervously as he wobbled left and right to dodge fluffy—yet deadly, projectiles catching a glimpse of Shikamaru who's lazily leaning on the railings of the upper deck of the gym's bleachers. Choji knew that expression was Shikamaru's I-told-you-so face. He really should've listened to his friend.

Choji looked distracted and when he was about to get hit and Shikamaru was about to yell for him to duck, a pillow suddenly swerved and hit the other pillow redirecting its trajectory and successfully missing Choji by a hair.

"Focus!" Blondie reprimanded and Choji answered "Yes ma'am!" instinctively while hurriedly throwing a pillow at Blondie's teammates.

At the end of the bloody pillow fight slash dodge-pillow, or whatever they wanted to call it, Choji and Blondie remained standing. Shikamaru then understood why Choji felt so awed by this girl and also why she survived the first challenge. She _is_ a monster when she wants to be.

She's _just_ another one of their troublesome species—Shikamaru reminded himself—like Ino, his mom, and all other girls he'd been forced to mingle with. She had that mischievous smile on her that could only mean trouble.

Shikamaru preferred quiet girls or at least those who knows when to be silent and when he's up for a little chat. Heaven knows he doesn't need another Yoshino or Ino or anyone that had the same sounding names as those two.

Choji and Blondie were the only ones left after the 5 minutes allotted time. The host congratulated them, shook their hands, stamped the cards that they have as proof of completing the challenge and gave them the commemorative pillows.

"We're going to Glinda's next," Choji gestured for Shikamaru to follow and the other just nodded in agreement.

Shikamaru was trailing behind the duo when a familiar brown haired girl blocked his path. He knew this girl. This girl was the one who dragged him into last year's opening week. "I see you're enjoying the opening week," the girl greeted.

"Because this time I'm not dragged into it, Tenten." Shikamaru sent her the fakest smile that he could muster.

"You don't always get what you want in life Shikamaru," she smiled sweetly.

"Is that a threat?" Shikamaru slightly considered not coming over to watch Choji suffer.

"A warning, an omen, take it however you want it," Tenten continued being cryptic as she walked away humming and whistling.

Shikamaru made a mental note to be wary of Tenten for the next few days, she is also a second year now and is wearing an ominous shirt that indicated that she's part of the committee that prepared all these contraptions. She looks like she still remembers what he did last year and he could only hope that she wouldn't settle his debt this year.

He walked towards where the huge maps around the university said Glinda's challenge will be at and soon spotted Choji and the Blondie together. The two are still talking and laughing at something... _again._

' _Looks like Choji's starting to enjoy this.'_

After five minutes of just idly standing around the venue, Shikamaru heard the stereos come to life and blared "Welcome To Glinda's Drink 'til you drop challenge!" says the girl dressed as the good witch addressing the crowd that surrounded their 1 foot high stage.

"In this challenge all you have to do is drink those concoctions on the Erlenmeyer flasks on your right, and say my tagline which is on the tarpaulin on your left. It's as _easy_ as that!" the _supposed_ good witch smiled and Shikamaru knew that there's got to be a catch.

"Can you tell us what's in the flasks?" a brave guy from the crowd asked.

"Oh dear," the witch smiled again, "I would want to tell you that but I also don't know," she added, looking not as sorry as she tried to sound.

"I knew it," Shikamaru mumbled. He lost trust in the Engineering department's take of the word 'simple' and 'easy'.

"But if you really want to know, you can ask the third years from Chemical Engineering," the witch winked. "All of them are safe…" she continued while she jumped from the stage to the ground, "...I hope," and opened a box beside the flasks. "...just in case they aren't we've prepared anti-diarrhea medication since you're not allowed to throw up," she proudly announced.

Glinda ordered the students to stand in line to get their own flasks and a tablet from the box. They all dreadfully took their flasks accepting their own horrible fate.

Choji gulped the contents on his flask looking green after doing so but he looked like he'll manage. Blondie seemed she would be puking her heart's out anytime soon.

Shikamaru noticed that Choji was staring hard at Blondie. Blondie noticed what the other was doing and returned Choji's gaze while she covered her mouth.

Choji placed his hand on his pocket and when he put it out, Shikamaru knew he was holding something.

Shikamaru carefully watched the silent conversation that's happening between the two and saw Blondie open her free hand. Choji flicked what looked like a red colored pebble sized thing and Blondie caught it in time.

' _You little cheat_ ,' Shikamaru grinned knowing Choji threw Blondie a piece of candy.

Blondie then acted as if she was about to throw up and used the hand that held the candy to cover her mouth.

Choji and Blondie's turn to say the witch's tagline came and they triumphantly bid, "You've always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it yourself."

The witch suspiciously handed them their mini thermos which were the prize for this challenge and another stamp on their cards.

The two walked away with smug grins on their faces and bumped fists as a small acknowledgment of their rule-breaking win.

They would have celebrated more if Blondie's stomach didn't gargle in protest as she clutched it hard and made a dash for the comfort room after inviting Choji to meet tomorrow and go to the next challenges together.

Choji agreed and waved her goodbye.

Shikamaru patted Choji's shoulders and said, "Congratulations on finishing the challenges and not getting caught." Choji replied with a laugh, "You saw that huh?"

"Yep that was brilliantly helpful of you."

"I wanted to repay her! She's the reason I survived bloody dodge pillow!" Choji reasoned, "Looks like I made a friend," he smiled cheerfully.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Lalalala sorry the chapter is late, half of me got hospitalized and the other half got sick after that :D As penance, this is a _little_ longer and there's a bit of a random guy pov at the end.. Oh! Happy Holidays! Take care of your liver guys~**

 **CHAPTER 4**

 _"—se me! Excuse me!" A feminine voice jolted him out of his musings. He tilted his head in the voice's direction and saw a brown-haired girl._

 _The girl looked satisfied that she finally had his attention. "Excuse me but could you move one seat over?" The girl continued while pointing to his right. He purposely left a seat between him and the blonde closest to the window so that he won't interact with her. She looks like a no-nonsense kind of girl and blondes from his experience are just too troublesome._

 _The brown-haired girl seemed annoyed that he did not answer her and just continued on staring at the seat in-between, "It's just that I want to seat with my friend here. I'm Tenten, by the way. And this unemotional prick who did not save me a seat is Neji."_

 _Shikamaru heaved a sigh and moved one seat over, still not responding to Tenten. Arguing over a seat is just too much work and besides, his obvious reluctance to talk with her would be enough deterrent to keep talking with him._

 _Apparently not because after settling in the girl turned to him and said, "Thanks for moving over." Offering him a cordial smile, she tacked in, "What's your name? What college are you from?"_

 _Shikamaru heard the blonde on his right snicker, obviously founding his reluctance to socialize amusing. He decided to just get it over with, no sense in alienating classmates that would be with you for the whole semester. Despite his evident dislike to his situation, he can't really fault his parents._

 _It's also his decision to graduate early and start college at fifteen. He finished his pre-law four years after that and now at nineteen years old he's pursuing his Law degree. Shikamaru does not know why he's even dwelling on these thoughts now. But he knows he just wants a familiar face amongst this people._

 _Giving a somewhat polite smile to the girl, he extends his hand, "Shikamaru Nara, I'm from College of Law." He is amused when Tenten skeptically took his offered hand, apparently convinced that he'll just snub her. But the girl bounced back surprisingly fast, smiled, and nudged Neji to introduce himself._

 _Neji gave a long suffering sigh and held out his hand too, "Neji Hyuuga. College of Engineering, same with this crazy girl." Tenten just beamed at him and Shikamaru quirked a smile while shaking Neji's hand. He has a feeling he'll get along with this guy._

 _After chatting a bit, he noticed Tenten eyeing the blonde on his right. He internally gave a long suffering sigh, much the same that Neji did, because he has a good idea of what will happen. And as he figured out, Tenten extended her hand to the blonde with the same introduction. He has to lean back in his chair in order to avoid Tenten's enthusiastic handshaking when the blonde grasped Tenten's hand since he's in between the two girls._

 _"Temari, College of Law." The blonde's—Temari's answer earned an arched brow from the three of them. They must have looked comical because Temari suddenly let out a snort but quickly covered it. Soon all four of them are laughing._

The laughters suddenly turned into the shrill ringing of his phone. Shikamaru groaned, looked at his bedside lamp and noted that it's only 6:38 in the morning. Ugh, he set his alarm at 9, he's supposed to wake up at 9.

As he was about to check who is calling him it suddenly stopped. If it's really important, whoever that is will call again, he justified as he refrained from getting out of his comfortable position to see who was calling him. He was awake —in fact too awake to ever get his sleep back but he doesn't want to leave the warm lazy atmosphere that stops his brain from going back and forth to the _then_ and _now_.

He curls up and hugs his pillow a bit tighter than what he lazily opens his eyes and admits that there was one thing he thanks Tenten for, Temari.

Temari is and always has been a person he can't describe or compare to someone or something specific. She isn't even nice when they first met. She isn't even average. She isn't all anything he wanted a girl to be, yet why?

 _Why?_ he asks… He has had several why's and why not's last year. Why did it have to be her? But yet... Why isn't _it_ her?

He was not making sense. It wasn't logical. It wasn't a nice thought to start the morning with. It wasn't supposed to make sense.

 _"Can you see what I wrote?"_

 _"What do you mean?"_

Shikamaru was too awake. He was too awake and was too aware that _she_ made her way into his thoughts again. It's not that he doesn't want to… it's just that everything he does will magically relate to Temari this, Temari that and thinking of a person who is not in a place which he can reach so easily is taking its toll on him.

Even his imaginary _soulmate_ whom has not written anything on her hand for the past few days is exhausting him to no end. Wow. He is getting worked up to the bone by people who are not even near him—he even doubts the other's existence and Ino insists he's just against ideas that aren't tangible enough to be worried over. Maybe, she's right.

He's _so_ out of it that he's starting to consider that Ino's right.

Shikamaru tried to remember Choji and Blondie's misadventures yesterday to keep himself from going down the path where he couldn't really get anything from. He did a lot of work for Choji, he should at least treat him to something. His curiosity was satisfied and he didn't find the need to really go back to those series of tortures again.

 _If Temari were here she'd watch the games with him and would keep both of them out of engineering students' hands like she did last year._

"Ugh," Shikamaru threw the pillow to the other side of the room and got out of bed. This is the reason why he doesn't usually go to that thought pattern because one way or the other—no matter what he does to go to a different topic—it will always fall back to him thinking about _her_.

 _She_ is in another country and _he_ should really stop whatever he's doing.

Shikamaru walked out of his room, a towel draped on his shoulder.

Unlike most days where he enjoyed the comfort that was brought by the water streaming from his head to his toes allowing his mind to wander, he kept his shower short this time. He doesn't want to let himself get lost in his thoughts since he knew what—rather, who—he will be thinking about if he started.

He got dressed, gathered his things from his table with a swipe of his arm, letting the notebooks and reference books fall into his bag, zipped it up and head for school.

Just as he locked his doors, his phone began to ring, again. Fetching it from his back pockets, he answered it without looking at the caller ID, which now that he looks back on, is a very stupid move.

"Hey! Shikamaru! You finally answered, thank God!" He stiffened at once when he heard the voice on the other side of the line. It was Tenten and she sounded so relieved, he knows she's about to ask for something. Without a second of hesitation and the need to hear an acknowledgement from him, "You owe me big time and I'm not one to charge cheap! Be at the House of Amethyst in 15 minutes or I'm dragging you into this opening week 'till your senior year. Bring your car!" she ordered with finality and the call dropped.

If it weren't for the fact that he's still guilty—and frustrated, about losing last year he wouldn't have chosen to go to Uni with his car just as Tenten dictated.

He slowed down when he saw Tenten waving by the entrance holding several neatly folded red curtains and Neji, the guy who is carrying double the amount of curtains that Tenten has is no other than the _'forsaken childhood friend'_ , no one else is as eligible for being the errand boy.

Shikamaru parked the car and Tenten gestured for him to open the door which he obeyed listlessly. Tenten wasted no time and immediately stuffed the curtains on the back seat of the car, going back to fetch the other set from Neji and making them fit enough so that there will be room for one person to sit.

"Can you open the trunk?" Tenten ordered as if she owns the car but Shikamaru just obeyed knowing well that Tenten will not let him counter whatever it is she's planning on having him slave over for.

Instead of explaining what all the curtains were for, Tenten just rammed them all in the remaining spaces on the backseat but still managed to arrange them to fit whoever is unfortunate enough to sit back there without any complaints which would most likely be Neji.

Shikamaru went out of the car and approached Neji who looked a bit vexed in figuring out how to fit everything inside the trunk and how to stop Tenten from giving him cardboard after cardboard of what appears to be decors for their booth.

Neji sighed in relief as he found Shikamaru helping him sort through things and slow Tenten down from shoving everything in the trunk.

"Thanks," Neji breathed, "You don't know how exhausting she becomes when she panics so much," and Shikamaru just gave him a slight bob of his head and a sympathetic tap on his back, "I know how it feels," he contributed, knowing that a little conversation might ease up the tension that seems to drown the two engineering students.

Neji stared at Shikamaru blankly not really expecting him to make an input, "You mean that childhood friend of yours, what was her name again?"

"Ino, wait 'till you meet her," Shikamaru used his weight to force the trunk shut, "You'll pick Tenten any day, I swear."

"She can't be that bad,"

Shikamaru snorted, "Meet her, then get back to me," he smirked and shrugged.

"Okay you win, I don't want to meet her," Neji chuckled but stopped shortly after hearing Tenten bellowing orders to work faster.

The both of them did as they were told and all three went inside the car. Tenten got the passenger seat and Shikamaru gave Neji a look of apology since he was stuck between the red curtains and the door which Shikamaru locked to keep Neji in the car.

They reached the tennis court in five minutes. Five minutes of Tenten haranguing them that they are late and _'Shikamaru, drive faster or else'_. Five minutes of long commiserating sigh between him and Neji and _'Calm down Tenten. It's still early'_.

Tenten hopped out of the car and Shikamaru unlocked the doors immediately, knowing full well that she was about to tear the doors open and get all the curtains out, which she did. He even felt a bit sorry for Neji who stood outside of the car, once again holding the curtains and letting Tenten stack them higher than his head.

"Shikamaru, get the hell outta there," Tenten shouted and Shikamaru resignedly followed.

If Temari was here all she would have to do is give her _the look_ and he'll be forced to get his ass moving unlike Tenten who'd have to use her voice.

Shikamaru groaned, and here he thought that he was finally able to keep his thoughts away from her. Looks like Tenten needs to work him to the bone a whole lot more than what she's already doing because he still had time to breathe and think about Temari.

Tenten handed him his own stack of curtains, "Tenten I can't see, can you take a few off of this pile so at least my eyes can be of use," Shikamaru tried to reason out. Good thing Tenten thought that was a solid argument and took some so that he can see, and did the same for Neji, which the guy thanked him for.

After only 30 minutes of preparation and a whole barrel-full of patience from the two man slaves that Tenten commanded, the booth is finished but Tenten is still not done with Shikamaru.

As Shikamaru was about to walk away, he felt a hand tug his shirt from behind. "Where are you going?" Tenten smiled. He's acquainted with that smile from all the troublesome women around him and it's not a smile that he likes.

"Somewhere far away from you," Shikamaru turned the other way and tried to move out of Tenten's claws.

"Oh?" Tenten gasped as she twisted him to face her—she can be intimidating despite her height, and smiled, "Did you think I was done with you?" and he swallowed hard. He should've known he was going to have to pay for what he's done but it's not like he wanted them to lose last year.

 _"Spongebob Squarepants The Final Battle Under the Sea." Tenten beamed as she clapped her hands together. This was the last battle she needed to finish to get that most coveted prize and she can cram the rest of the semester without having to worry about lining up to get the subjects she wants._

 _Shikamaru, Temari, and Neji just stood behind her, all of them equally clueless as to why they are still being dragged deeper into this mess—except for Neji—he did sign up for this._

 _"Why are we still here?" Shikamaru courageously asked despite the foreboding feeling at the pit of his stomach. He was hauled into this fiasco when he only met all three of them a week ago. He was starting to dread what might happen if they remain friends for the rest of the years he had to stay for college._

 _"We needed non-engineering partners for the last battle," Neji explained calmly._

 _"This is the sole reason why I befriended you guys," Tenten joked—still grinning as if she meant every single word—everyone thinks she did._

 _They got on the arena located in the university gymnasium. The gymnasium is transformed into a laser-tag look alike except instead of looking dark and full of neon lights, the gymnasium is filled with under the sea paraphernalias and a lot of bubbles that hurts his eyes. Shikamaru can also see some really authentic-looking mermaids and some sea folks. It was filled with walls made out of plywood which had bubbles painted in it and what felt like real blood splatters._

 _"Again, this does not look like a friendly battle," Temari thought aloud while she was given a white apron and a gigantic water gun. "Since when were the challenges considered 'friendly' to begin with," Shikamaru grumbled, he wanted to be paired with Neji at least, that would make his life a bit more easy._

 _They were asked to form a boy-girl pair and Shikamaru felt himself die inside._

 _They were given instructions: first, if either you or your partner is hit three times then you lose. Each of the two-man team's water guns have different colored water in them to know who was hit by whom._

 _It was a fierce battle, Tenten got hit once and Shikamaru retaliated by shooting a random student out and accidentally Temari. The determination to kill emanated from her and Shikamaru felt a chill run down his spine. He was dead he knew that but the time was running out. All he had to do was run and that will make her lose the game together with Neji._

 _Temari rushed towards him and he ran his fastest. "Screw everything," he never felt more afraid for his life other than the time when his mother found all the wrappers of the chips—that he and Choji ate the weekend he stayed over—under his bed when he told her that he already cleaned them out and he was 8 at the time. He heard a student cuss loudly—probably hit by the ravaging beast who was also after him._

 _Shikamaru heard the buzzer for the last 20 seconds blare on the speakers and he released the breath he didn't knew he was holding, then he heard a thud and he was forced to look behind him, Temari lay on the floor unmoving and a wave of hysteria washed over him._

 _"Hey!" He tried to get Temari's attention. He waited for a flinch, a sign, whatever that could convince himself that she was fine._

 _"Leave her there!" Tenten sounded distant but her voice still resonated along the gymnasium. "The fight is ending! Check her later! This can be a trap!" she reminded him to think rationally, "This is war Shikamaru!"_

 _"You're holding a water gun Tenten!" He retorted as he discarded his water gun and ran for Temari. Another buzzer thundered meaning the last 10 seconds._

 _"I think she's hurt!" Shikamaru hollered as he knelt before Temari, flipping her over, his right arm resting on her back as his left hand patted her cheek gently. "Temari?" he called._

 _Temari's eyes slowly fluttered open as the last five seconds beeped, "You should really start listening to Tenten," she smirked as she pointed the water gun at Shikamaru's forehead and squirted blue water on him, leaving him wide-eyed and shocked._

 _Tenten fumed at him and vowed to one day have him pay for everything this loss was worth._

"Shikamaru to Earth!" Tenten waved a hand in front of him, noticing that it did not work in getting his brain back to where it should be, she tugged him behind the curtained booth they set up while reminding him to sit still and be good.

He stood behind the booth Tenten and her gang of engineering students made, a red curtain—the one he remembers hauling here by the orders of the supreme terror, veiling the identity of the person standing before him. He should really have listened when Tenten was explaining what he was supposed to do there rather than daze around.

"Go!" Shikamaru heard the speakers blare and the curtain was pulled aside.

"Shikamaru?" the girl asked confused, "You volunteered to be here? Weird," she thought to herself.

Shikamaru tilted his head slightly trying to remember the name to the face in front of him, "I didn't volunteer, I was dragged..." he trailed off and smiled when he finally put a name to the face, "...Matsuri."

"Wow! You remember my name!" Matsuri jibed.

"How's Gaara?" Shikamaru smirked.

"Why does everyone ask me that?" Matsuri sighed and Shikamaru just answered it with a shrug.

The signage that was posted a few meters away from the booth caught Shikamaru's attention, "Tinman's Pickup Line Challenge?" he read aloud, "Is this what this booth is for?"

"Yep. You should really know the details before you let yourself get dragged somewhere,"

"I wasn't in the position where I could choose. So what can I do for you?"

"Stand there and blush."

"Nope, let's hear your pick up line first."

"Please don't make me embarrass myself in front of you."

"If you make me the least bit fidgety you win, so hit me with your best...line?" Shikamaru crossed his arms and stood tall daring Matsuri to even try.

Matsuri raised a brow at Shikamaru and pointed her finger at him as if aiming to shoot. "You're under arrest!" she smiled ominously, "Anything you say can and will be held against you..." she paused lowering her hand and her expression softened, "so only say my name."

Shikamaru must admit that was a good one but seeing Tenten trying to suppress a shit-eating grin, he reminded himself that he should not let her lord this over him for as long as she lives—or even longer than that.

In a low husky voice, "Ma-tsu-ri," he breathed drawing out each syllable, he opened his arm and did a 'come-hither' gesture.

Matsuri stood there frozen in shock. Color slowly crept up her face and she shielded herself with her hands, "Foul! Dammit! Foul!" she complained.

Tenten didn't look satisfied of the outcome as Shikamaru approached her and tapped her shoulder lightly in a teasing manner. When she recovered from the daze she was in she immediately jerked Shikamaru's collar to stop him from walking away, "Where do you think you're going?"

Shikamaru wanted out. He doesn't know what will happen if he stayed longer in Tenten's booth. Fortunately, he saw Choji and his blonde friend in the distance. He badly hoped that Choji would hear his mental SOS message.

Choji seemed to hear him and waved at him from afar. "I gotta go," he said in a tone too enthusiastic to be believable, "Choji..." he pointed to his friend, "...my childhood friend, is waiting for me. I told them I'd guide them through this."

"Uh-huh," Tenten urged for him to continue, clearly unconvinced. He was never the one to volunteer himself for work.

"Yeah," he dashed away the moment Tenten's hand loosened its hold onto him.

Shikamaru headed for Choji and thanked him for his help,

They chatted as they walked towards the booth and the duo told Shikamaru that they finished the scarecrow challenge with yet another rule-breaking record when Tenten called, "Shikamaru! How the hell can I replace you? Get back in the booth!" Tenten pleaded, "I can't drag anyone else in there!" Shikamaru panicked a bit because he thought Tenten had already given up on him but here she is.

"Wait! I'll find you someone," he said and went after a familiar face in the crowd as Tenten walked Choji and Blondie to the booths asking for them to wait in line.

Shikamaru does not want to go back to that booth and go through all the trouble of making countermeasures to negate whatever pick-up line the other person might tell him.

"Asuma-sensei!" he greeted.

"Shikamaru? What got _you_ up and running?" his professor answered, looking so bewildered.

"Can you come with me?" he asked already towing his oblivious professor. He handed Asuma to Tenten who smiled politely as he gestured for the professor to follow.

When Asuma was given the most ambiguous briefing he had ever had in his entire life, Tenten shut the curtains covering the back part of the booth and eagerly signalled the announcer to start the challenge again.

Shikamaru eyed Asuma's booth patiently, waiting for the special snowflake to pull the curtains open.

Blondie swiped the curtains open which stirred up the dust from the ground making Asuma sneeze in response. "Sorry about that," the professor bid but Blondie just stood unfazed, "I'd say god bless you," she looked at Asuma from head to toe and shot him a flirty smile, "but it looks like he already did,"

The crowd went silent. You can even hear the chirping of the birds on the trees. The world stopped and it was the first time Shikamaru had seen a grown man blush so hard.

After what felt like an eternity, the whole crowd went wild.

Shikamaru cannot help but clap along.

 _She._

 _Is._

 _Unbelievable._

* * *

 **OMAKE /random guy pov/**

It was a ferocious battle. He did not at all expect everything that is happening.

His breathing grew heavy as he hid behind one of the lockers. He checked left and right if his "schoolmates" caught up to him. "He's here!" a girl yelled followed by thundering of footsteps.

He didn't wait to see who they were or if he was the one that they are chasing, he just ran as if his life depended on it.

He raced to the staircase where one of the mobs caught his shirt. He forcefully yanked it and climbed to the rooftop.

"Give it up! There's nowhere to run!" someone demanded.

He gulped. Whoever said that was right. He was cornered. He knew this is the end—or he could jump from the rooftop to the ground floor which is what, 4-5 floors below? He tried to remember if there was an article that he read in the past where someone could survive from a fall this high up—albeit with a lot of broken bones.

Will he really sacrifice his well-being to win this challenge? But surrendering is not cool! And he already invested so much to win.

He will not hand the arm to his pursuers. Hah. That was clever. Hand the arm. Wait should he really be making puns at this critical point of his life? He already did.

"If I can't have this," he paused for the dramatic effect while waving the arm, "...then nobody will!" He dropped the arm, his pursuers ran to the railings of the rooftop watching it fall to the arms of an unsuspecting blonde. He laughed maniacally in response to his pursuers groans and crestfallen faces.


End file.
